Why transformation in energy is powered by digital

Huawei offers a combination of technology that is essential for the transformation of global energy companies as they strive to achieve their goals of delivering a greener, more reliable, and more secure energy future.

The world’s demand for energy is insatiable. But for energy companies, meeting that need requires them to navigate a series of challenges.

Climate change looms large in discussions, creating an ongoing requirement for existing players to invest in low carbon solutions, especially as countries including China have set targets to achieve carbon neutrality this century.

At the same time, the market faces ongoing disruption from new entrants and home-based generation and storage, as well as from the growth of new use cases such as electric vehicle changing stations. All of these are bringing greater complexity to management of the power grid.

And of course, the threat from cyber-attacks is also constant, meaning enterprises must improve both their security awareness and their ability to respond once threats are detected.

The need for transformation

According to Robin Liu, Executive Vice President of the Global Energy Business Unit at Huawei’s Enterprise Business Group, these factors are fuelling the need for digital transformation within the energy industry today. As a result, he sees many organisations now moving towards creation of fully-cloud based digital foundations for their businesses.

 “Digital transformation is a systematic program which needs to be methodologically implemented, and building a fully cloud-based platform allows for the connection of everything,” Liu says. “This enables the upgrading of network infrastructure, including equipment, networks, service and operations.”

Liu also sees strong investment in the communications infrastructure required to connect equipment and services, including the deployment of both optical fibre and 5G infrastructure. He says 5G infrastructure in particular meets requirements for the secure isolation of traffic which previous generations of mobile technology could not deliver.

“Within this context, 5G technology has emerged and is addressing all corresponding problems through its native features of large bandwidth, low latency and massive connectivity,” Lieu says “And innovative technology such as level slicing, edge computing and artificial intelligence means 5G technology meets the requirement of power companies for ubiquitous, flexible, economical, secure and reliable communication.”

When combined with cloud platforms, these capabilities enable energy companies to deliver a higher level of service experience to their customers.

The Huawei advantage

Huawei offers a combination of cloud computing services and network technology enable a strong foundation for the effective transformation of energy companies, including advanced cloud and edge services powered by artificial intelligence. This includes specific capabilities built into Huawei’s chip sets to provide intelligent solutions for computing, management, storage, and other tasks.

Much of this capability is encapsulated in a full digital transformation methodology called EnergyWin, which can be used by power enterprises as they seek to achieve their transformation vision. This summarises the transformation process down to a single platform vision that supports digital and transformation cultures, and integrates management of planning, construction, and operation.

Liu says that by following this methodology organisations will ultimately have the single digital foundation they need for transformation.

This methodology has been applied to various industry players, including in QuingDao, China, where Huawei has worked with the China Telecom and the State Grid Corporation of China to create the China’s largest 5G-based smart power grid demonstration site. Specifically, Huawei’s 5G slicing technology has enabled end-to-end smart grid communication to ensure the security and reliability of the power distribution network.

Liu says one specific advantage has been unlocked through the introduction of secure 4K video monitoring on the 5G network, which has resulted in onsite personnel no longer being required for 80 per cent of monitoring scenarios, with dedicated maintenance personnel are no longer needed at more than 100 sites. This alone has led to a CNY2.2 million saving in costs each year.

Furthermore, the heightened reliability and low latency of the 5G network has enabled the automation of power distribution services using AI-based situational awareness technology. As a result, the cost of power outages on each power distribution line has been reduced but CNY680,000 per line.

Additional projects in China and other parts of the world see Huawei working with power generation organisations to take steps towards greater use of renewable energy. And in the UAE, Huawei is working to help power enterprises monetise their fibre assets, including creation of the Dubai metro backbone fibre network.

Conclusion

With more than 20 years’ experience and a track record of assisting more than 190 electricity power enterprises worldwide, including many leading providers, Huawei has emerged as the ideal partner to help energy companies to achieve their ambitions.

Huawei offers the combination of 5G, cloud, and AI technology that is essential for the transformation of the world’s energy companies as they strive to achieve their goals of delivering a greener, more reliable, and more secure energy future.

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